Dreamweaver has a rival (Microsoft Expression 2 Full Edition)

Member Name: jespin

Product:	Microsoft Expression 2 Full Edition
Date:	03/08/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some better features than Dreamweaver

Disadvantages: Database connectivity is not as good.

As a Computer Science student, this is one of the pieces of software I get free through some Microsoft Initiative. Being an experienced web designer and Dreamweaver fan, I was a little wary of trying this product as it is a very different format than that which I am used to. However, unlike Dreamweaver, this is a complete studio package and is useful in every stage of web development from image creation and editing to the design and implementation of a fully dynamic website.

In comparison to Dreamweaver, this software matches it on features. Like Dreamweaver it has drag and drop functionality as well as allowing you to hard code in your preferred language. Furthermore, there are a number of shortcuts which mean that this software will largely write a lot of your code for you saving you a lot of time, something I have not found in Dreamweaver.

There are however two potential pitfalls to this software. One is the user, in this case myself, as if you are used to using something like Dreamweaver you will find this very hard to get used to. However if you are starting from scratch I would possibly recommend some of the features of this software over those of Dreamweaver. A further pitfall however is database connectivity. Dreamweaver has some excellent facilities for making a database backed website and will largely connect up all the back-end workings for you through a wizard. Expression however requires you to do a lot of this yourself which can be very tedious if you are not used to it.

I would recommend this for people who have not used Dreamweaver before and are just starting out as you will potentially benefit from this software's better features. I just wish I had tried this before using Dreamweaver.

Summary: A worthy alternative to Dreamweaver.

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